My Idiot Cousin
by supersushicupcake
Summary: All fifteen year old Erin Oswald excpeted this summer break was to spend her days catching up on some books she never finished and maybe even run a few errands for her Uncle Sal. Never did she expect to run into a certain sweets-loving boy and she certainly didn't expect him to be her COUSIN! Well, she can now kiss her peaceful summer good bye. For Sleeping Moon. One-shot.
1. The Importance of Family

First off **I DO NOT OWN** Heart no kuni no Alice, Quinrose does. I also** DO NOT OWN **Erin Oswald or Uncle Sal, Sleeping Moon does. Plus I **DO NOT OWN **Dr. Who. I do however own Alex. So please go ahead and enjoy the one-shot :D

* * *

"Erin, be a darling and hand me the torque wrench, will ya ?"

A burly voice called out from beneath the old pick-up truck as the girl who was previously reading a thick novel let out a small sigh and jumped off the stool she was once sitting on. Everything was peaceful in the quaint mechanic shop and business was kind of slow today (surprisingly), so her uncle decided he would spruce up the old '68 Ford F1-50 that he had purchased awhile back.

"Yes sir."

The fifteen year old brunette casually responded as she dug through the enormous red metal bin that stored all of her uncle's valuable tools. It took her a couple of minutes to find the right wrench and by then her oil-stained uncle slid out from beneath the truck, wiping away the dark stains that covered his hands with a tattered rag.

"Ya know you don't have to call me sir…Uncle Sal is alright. Besides I'm not that much older than you…hahaha.." The man nervously chuckled as he shot his emotionless niece a bright smile. It had only been a few months since he brought the girl to live with him in England's Stratford-Upon-Avon, but still there was a bit of awkwardness that lingered in the air. Though it was to be expected, it was new town and everything and since it was summer break, Erin hadn't attended the local high school yet so least to say friends were a minimum.

"If you insist." Erin shortly stated as she placed the cold metal in her uncle's hand and went back to her little stoop.

"Oh!" Sal suddenly shouted causing Erin to nearly fall off the chair, the sudden noise had frightened her—a lot.

"Wah!"

Erin held onto a nearby table and struggled to regain her balance as the wooden legs of the chair teetered-tottered back and forth before finally settling into place. This was the first sign, that the peacefulness in Erin's life was about to change and if she had known better she would have realized this great warning and ran for the hills. But unfortunately she did not.

"You okay?! Sorry about that!" Sal quickly apologize as he jumped up to his feet and rushed to the flustered girl's side who quickly waved him off.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Uncle Sal no worries."

"That's good…I really didn't mean to frighten you." Sal continued to apologize as Erin gave him a curt nod.

"Yes, I am certainly fine. Though I believe that you were about to say something?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Your Aunt Edith was telling me that some distant relatives of ours are visiting. Who would have known, right? Though when I asked your aunt over the phone, cause I was talking over the phone with her you know, how we were related. She was telling me that they're the sort of family that's related by some brother's, cousin's, great- aunt's, father-side grandmother. Complete hogwash isn't it? Ha ha!" The ginger-haired man snorted as Erin felt her lips twitch into a straight line as she adjusted her reading glasses. The news was a bit surprising she guessed and she couldn't deny that even though her expression looked stoic, she was a bit interested in these so-called relatives especially if they were from her aunt's side of the family— A branch of the family tree she wasn't very familiar with.

"I see…" She gave another short reply that caused her uncle to sweat nervously at his dear niece's lack of response or interest.

"Well…anyways I thought it would be a good idea to visit them. You know just a few how do you do's and such. Plus Aunt Edith even said that one of the relatives is also named Edith. Pretty odd, huh? I guess it's a small world after all.~" Sal sang the last part causing the faintest of smiles to appear on Erin's face. Her uncle's cheerfulness was quite contagious.

"It is quite strange I guess, to have another relative with the same name."

"And someone give the young miss a prize for speaking more than five words!~" Sal teased as Erin opened her book and tried to hide the pale blush on her cheeks.

"If you must know I've already have said more than five words before…" Erin spoke up as Sal continued to grin.

"Yes, Yes and since you're in such a talking mood. Do ya think that you can run down to the hardware store and pick up my order?"

"Sure why not?"

Erin shrugged as her uncle thanked her and gave her a small wad of cash. And just as she was going to walk out of the warm shop her uncle offered her some advice.

"Also, Erin, I know you're quite a level-headed girl but watch out for strangers okay?"

"Alright, I will."

"Good girl!"

And with that said, Erin continued her way towards the hardware store that was only a few blocks away. If only she knew how important those words her uncle offered her were, for they were the second sign that things were about to get—crazy.

**~.X.~**

"What a lovely day it is.." Erin mumbled beneath her breath as she adjusted the crisp brown paper bags brimming with small bolts and screws in her arms. Even though the weight from the parts were a bit discomforting , the young girl couldn't deny that it was certainly a pleasant day in the time-frozen town. The sun was shining, a fresh breeze caressed her face, little blue-jays and robins were chirping and a boy was getting into a suspicious white van after receiving candy from some strange men.

Wait a minute.

"The Hell?"

Erin's green eyes widened as the boy eagerly took the candy without so much as a second thought. "Are those gentleman using the oldest trick in the book?" Erin asked herself before pushing it aside, everyone knew not to take candy from strangers and surely the pedophiles of this age would resort to different tactics. Surely, Erin must have been mistaken, maybe the boy knew the gentlemen and—

"Come on kid, there's more where that came."

"Really!? Thanks mister! Who knew strangers were so nice?~" The boy laughed as he placed a foot onto the vehicle.

Then again maybe not.

"HEY! Don't get in that car!"

Erin screamed as the men panicked and were about to pull the unsuspecting boy in, before Erin, acting on impulse hurdled the heavy bags she was carrying at them and pulled the boy away from the vehicle by his blue blazer.

"Uwah!" The boy cried out in surprise as Erin dragged him onto the sidewalk.

"Damn it! Harold! The kid's getting away!" One of the men shouted as another jumped out from the van holding a crowbar.

This obviously wasn't good. And it seemed like Erin was the only one who realized it.

"Where's my candy?"

The boy innocently asked as Erin couldn't believe this was actually happening. All she was hoping for was a quiet, peaceful summer with her uncle, and maybe run a few errands here and there— not to be facing a child-trafficking ring!

"Forget the candy! RUN!"

"But my can—"

"FORGET IT!"

Erin yelled before grabbing the boy's hand and running the bloody hell away from the pedophiles.

"GET THEM!"

Yeah, she can kiss her blissful summer good-bye.

**~.X.~**

So have you ever wondered what kind of idiot takes candy from strangers? Erin didn't have to ponder for too long since she got her answer pretty quickly—a sweet-obsessed idiot.

"Guuuu~~ Erin….I'm so hungry…."

The boy weakly said as he sluggishly crawled behind the now slightly-annoyed girl. They had finally lost the kidnappers down one of the many alley-ways of the small town but now the children themselves were a bit lost. Erin knew most of the town pretty well but sadly it seemed like they were in a part that she didn't know.

"Well, I'm sorry, I don't have any treats on me so you'll just have to wait."

Erin said as she heard the boy give out a small huff. Whoever he was, Erin could conclude that first of all he was an idiot, second a glutton and now an impatient child. After that short exchange of words, they continued down the cobbled streets in silence, not really saying much to each other until finally the brunette boy couldn't take the awkward silence anymore.

"Well since I know your name…I guess I should introduce myself." He spoke up causing Erin to freeze in her tracks and face the lad. Now that she thought about it, she had briefly given her name to him when they had ran down the alley but he never gave her his.

"Well, that's what is usually done when two strangers meet."

"Right! I'm Alexander Liddell! Though just call me Alex for short. It's easier to remember, because it sounds like twix." The young guy smiled brightly and stuck his hand out towards Erin, who shook it.

"Nice to meet you Alex.." Erin dully responded but when she took a double-take of the guy, she felt a warm blush spread across her face. Why? Simple—the boy was beautiful.

"_Strangely beautiful, almost surreal_." Erin thought as she squeezed the boy's hand just to make sure he was in fact real. He was obviously younger than the fifteen year old Erin, about thirteen years old, though he was bit on the short side for his age. Which Erin figured was because he hadn't hit his growth spurt yet. He had short light brown locks that had a very faint tint of blonde, making the strands seem like tanned sunshine, though if Erin had to choose a color she would just stay with brown. Of course like any dream-like person Alex had flawless pale skin and bright turquoise eyes, that shimmered with endless curiosity. And if that wasn't enough the boy was wearing a very expensive looking baby blue blazer with a white undershirt and dark blue jeans with designer red sneakers.

So you can't blame the girl for feeling a bit self-conscience when she realized she was just wearing an old green jumpsuit, one that was similar to her Uncle's faded blue one. Though truth be told she didn't give a damn about style, but she was now afraid that her companion did. And if she knew him better, she would have known that he didn't.

"It's nice to meet you too! Even if you made me lose my candy, but no matter I'm sure you're sorry about that…" Alex continued to smile as Erin frowned, suddenly his glorious image had faded and revealed the spoiled brat it had so carefully hidden.

"You know I just saved your life. Those men were about to kidnap you."

Erin deadpanned as she shoved her hands into her pockets and continued to walk forward. She knew how to deal with these types of people—you ignored the hell out of them. Alex on the other hand looked completely surprised by the new information.

"What!? No way! Those guys were too nice! Plus they gave out candy, which means they had to be good!" Alex rationally explained as Erin could feel a vein twitch on her forehead. Nobody could seriously be that dumb.

"Are you serious? Haven't you ever heard of the rule: Don't ever go with a stranger who offers you candy?"

"Who would make such a rule!? Of course you would go with them! Because then how would you get even more candy!? It's quite elementary my dear Erin.~"

Unfortunately Erin had found that one person.

"Your…obviously someone who is quite air-headed, naïve and gullible. Aren't you?" Erin insensitively said, one of her traits that turned off most people, but then again Alex wasn't like most human-beings.

"Wow….how did you know!?" Alex happily chirped as Erin pinched the bridge of her nose, she was starting to regret ever saving the boy. And speaking of the event, she just realized that she had lost all of her uncle's screws and bolts.

"Oh bollocks! I lost my uncle's order!"

Erin cursed as she tugged at her hair in frustration. This day was certainly not going the way she planned. "Huh? Oh you mean those bags that you threw at those nice guys?" Alex asked as Erin's irritation only grew. "For the bloody last time, they were NOT good and YES because of you I lost the very expensive bag of parts for my uncle's shop!" Erin scowled as she thought about all the misfortune that had come upon her.

"Well…we can always go back and get them." Alex calmly suggested as the girl stared at the cheerful boy.

"There are several problems with your suggestion, first off, the items are probably long gone and two, I have no idea how to get back there." Erin stated as she counted off the list with her fingers. Alex stood there for a moment listening to his new friend's words, (and yes the guy already dubbed the girl he has only known for ten minutes as a friend) before suddenly a light bulb flashed above his head.

"Oh! Don't worry about that! I have a map! One of the pretty ladies I met gave me one.~" Alex grinned as he pulled out the slightly crinkled map from a hidden pocket on the inside of his blazer. He remembered the lady who gave it to him clearly, mostly because she ran a bakery and out of the kindness of her heart (and a bit of convincing from a certain dessert-loving boy) she gave him a couple of tasty cookies. What an angel-sent woman.~

….

…

"YOU HAD A MAP THIS WHOLE BLOODY TIME!?"

Erin seethed as she began to shake the idio—er guy back and forth, rattling whatever little brain he had left.

"Y-Y-Yeah!"

"HOW COME YOU DIDN'T MENTION THIS SOONER!?"

"You didn't a-a-ask!"

Alex stuttered as Erin slowly halted her assault, though only because a few pedestrians were casting the couple strange looks. Erin let out a small sigh before releasing her grip on the boy's shoulders. How did it all end up this way?

"I suppose your right, my apologies. Just hand over the map will you?" Erin asked as Alex quickly handed over the piece of paper, fearing to displease the scowling girl. Plus he was sure he had slight brain damage from all that shaking she did to his skull.

By the time the tween and teen reached the street that they had encountered the pedophile men, it was already dusk and the once rectangular bags were now no more than tattered pieces of paper. But the worst part was, just like Erin suspected, all the parts that her uncle had ordered were—gone.

"Great…Just great…" The dark-haired girl ran her fingers through her bangs before plopping onto the curb. What was she supposed to tell her uncle now? That when she was coming home she saw a boy talking to strangers and rescued him, only to lose the most likely expensive screws and bolts as she was doing so. Poppycock! Who would believe such an unbelievable thing? She was only fifteen after all, a RATIONAL fifteen year old girl who knew going against such men was dangerous. So then…why did she do it?

Was it because it was only human nature to help your fellow man or perhaps it was something els—

"Oh! Erin look! I found a bolt!" Alex sunnily piped as he raised up a shiny belly-button ring.

How it got there? Nobody knows.

"That's a dirty belly-button piercing, Alex." Erin deadpanned as the boy stiffened and tossed the bejeweled metal far away before any deadly bacteria made them-self at home on his skin.

Yeah, or maybe it could have just been that she had a momentarily case of insanity.

"What am I going to tell Uncle Sal?"

Erin gloomed as Alex curiously watched the girl feeling a bit guilty about the whole situation. All he wanted to do was explore the town a bit, he didn't mean to cause any trouble but yet—trouble always found him. It was kind of his thing really, he couldn't go five minutes without getting into some fiasco, which is why his mother thought it would be best to leave the bustling city of London, for the sleepy town of Stratford-Upon-Avon. He had been here for a day now, and he figured his mother's dream of having a peaceful vacation was long gone. In fact he wondered if his mother even noticed he was missing yet. "_Probably not, it's not like she pays much attention to me anyways." _ Alex thought before quickly squashing it, now wasn't the time to think of such depressing things. Now was the time for action!

"Erin, don't worry! I'll get your uncle's stuff back!" Alex declared as he confidently stared into the distance, like some comic book hero.

"Oh really? So then you'll pay for the replacements?" Erin asked hopefully as the air suddenly filled with silence.

…..

….

"Uhhhhhhh….I….don't…have any cash on me…" Alex sheepishly replied as Erin facepalmed her forehead. She should have known better than to expect the trouble-maker to fix things. She guessed things were hopeless now. "But don't worry! I'll fix it! Really! So don't look so sad…." Alex embarrassingly blushed as Erin's green eyes peered into his teal ones. "How can I not be sad, when I was trusted to do such a simple task and I failed." Erin said before she hung her head and stared hard at the ground. "Plus after this what will Uncle Sa—"

"Uncle Sal won't ever find out, because I'm getting you those bolts!" Alex put a reassuring hand on a sullen Erin's shoulder before smiling.

"But you don't even have cas—"

"Trust me….I can do this…maybe."

Alex gave the girl a quirky grin and before she could even utter another word the boy disappeared.

**~.X.~**

"It's getting late…maybe I should just go." Erin thought out loud as she watched the once orange sun turn into a bleeding red as it sunk below the surrounding cottage roof-tops. It had been over an hour and Alex still hadn't returned and the girl was wondering if she should go back home. Or maybe the police station, since a small thought that she had pushed aside irked her nerves, she had pondered for a moment that the reason why Alex was running late was because he had taken candy from another stranger again. And Erin had a gut feeling that he was the type of person who wouldn't learn the first time around.

"Why am I worrying about him anyways…he's not my responsibility…" Erin puffed as she paced back and forth, trying to calm herself down. But even though she tried, that annoying conscience of hers kept nagging in the back of her skull. "….but then again…he is younger than me…..and smaller….GAH! What was I thinking of letting him go by himself!?" Erin held her head as she spun around in small circles before collapsing on a nearby bench. Things definitely were out of hand now.

"Erin! HEY ERIN!"

Huh?

Erin swiftly sat up, nearly falling off the wooden seat as her mouth dropped. Alex was waving excitedly at the shocked girl, from the inside of a huge truck that had the bright red letters of Pete's Hardware Supply written on the side. What the heck was going on!?

"Alex! Get out of that vehicle this instant!" Erin commanded as the huge truck came to a sharp stop and Alex hopped out of the enormous thing.

"Heh, don't worry Erin! Pete here offered me a ride!~" Alex cheekily grinned as Erin suspiciously stared at the bearded driver who shot her a toothy smile, before she started to check Alex for any wounds. And when she found none, she was finally able to relax.

"….I see….though what's with the truck?"

"Huh? Oh! All this stuff is for you and your uncle! It's filled with lots of neat stuff…will this be enough?"

What?

"E-E-Excuse me?" Erin choked as Alex patted her back. "All this is for…me? Er, I mean my uncle!? How is that even possible! You said you didn't even have cash on you!" Erin exclaimed as Alex laughed at his friend's flustered-ness. He thought it was pretty funny, it was just a truck after all, filled with about over $15,000 worth of items. Nothing big.

Yeah, tell that to college students who are surviving off of ramen.

"Well, we had a trade-off, right Pete!?" Alex turned to the mountain of a man who gave them a small nod.

"What…did you trade?" Erin nervously asked fearing that the boy had made a rash decision and sold himself as a slave, forever in debt to the evil hardware store man. Was it complete nonsense? Yes, but then again this day had been a bit—hectic.

"Oh, just something personal of min—"

"Alex! How could you sell your body!?" Erin cried as she grabbed the boy's shoulders.

"Eh? Body? Why would I sell my body? I need that ya know…all I gave Pete was my one-of-a kind Italian handcrafted blazer…it's worth more than I expected. Who would have known?" Alex answered innocently as invisible lighting struck Erin not once— but twice.

How could she think such an outrageous thing?

"_But then again….this day has been outrageous enough.." _ Erin silently thought before staring at the always smiling Alex. What made him so carefree and easy-going? It was strange, unusual even. "Thank you." Erin quickly muttered as she gave him a short bow.

"No need to thank me, that's what friends do for each other, right?"

"Friends?" Erin questioned the guy that considered her a friend, and so hastily too! They had known each other for like how long? An hour or so?

"Yeah! We're friends aren't we?" Alex childishly asked and truth be told he was secretly praying that Erin would agree. He didn't have many friends—okay he didn't have ANY friends. So having just one was fine with him.

"Well….I supposed so…if you say friends do these types of thi—UWAH!"

Erin fell to the ground as Alex happily wrapped his arms around the girl and started to squeeze the life out of her. For a small kid, he was REALLY strong! And the sudden surprise attack shocked Erin, who wasn't use to such affection.

"Thank you! I promise to be the best friend ever!" Alex shouted, trying to hold his tears of joy back, he was a man for goodness-sake so crying wasn't allowed. "R-R-Right….Alex…can't…BREATHE." Erin gasped as she turned a slight blue color, from the lack of oxygen. "Oh! Sorry!" Alex released his grip as his new friend sucked in multiple deep breaths.

"Though still… I'll feel bad that I won't be able to pay you back." Erin said as she stared at the ginormous truck, wondering how her Uncle will respond to this driving up to his shop. _"Probably ask if I robbed the place." _ Erin chuckled at the thought, picturing her Uncle's shocked face and his grey eyes popping out of his sockets. That was surely going to be a sight to behold but of course business first.

"So is there anything you would like in exchange? Or maybe we could set up a payment plan?" Erin suggested as an awkward silence filled the air before Alex burst out laughing.

"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Erin! You're so funny! HAHAHAHA! A payment plan! Hahaha! Who am I my mother?" Alex clutched his stomach as he wiped away the tears that were forming at the corners of his eyes. Erin on the other hand had no idea what was so funny or why she would compare him to his mother? Which by the way, who was his mother and wouldn't she be worried that her son was running around the streets at this hour?

"But—"

"Erin, when people are given gifts, they just say thank you and don't question it." Alex smiled as he softly scolded the older girl.

"But Alex—"

"Fine, if you really want to pay me back…then…let's hang out again!" Alex tugged at Erin's hands like any child would do and smiled brightly at the other brunette, who couldn't believe that the guy would just ask for that.

"Seriously…that's it?" Erin said still dumbfounded by the boy's simple request.

"Yup! So don't forget okay?"

"O-O-Okay…"

"Well…I better go back home now…mother is probably having a heart attack and my aunt is probably already releasing the hounds.~" Alex joking laughed (or so Erin thought, but in reality he was actually telling the truth) as he nervously rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh…alright…see you later then."

Who exactly was this little candy loving boy? The world, or at least Erin, may never know. Ha! Just kidding, then we wouldn't have a story would we?

**~.X.~**

Days passed and Erin never saw Alex again, and she was actually questioning herself if she had ever met the boy. But then again with all the boxes brimming with new tools and parts that not only took up space in the mechanic's shop but in his house too, reminded her that she indeed met Alex. Though the only thing her mind couldn't wrap around was—how come he hadn't visited yet?

"….I'm so stupid!" Erin slapped the thick book in her hands against her head as she suddenly realized she never told Alex where she lived. But as she sat there and thought about it some more, the idio—er new friend didn't tell her where he lived either.

"Something wrong?"

Uncle Sal walked in carrying a rather large box in his arms as Erin froze and slid the book down her face before meeting her uncle's gaze.

"No…nothing's wrong…I was just…thinking." Erin sighed as her uncle moved across the shop with ease before setting the box down. Surprisingly when Erin showed up with the all the new goodies, her uncle didn't question it at all, and even thought they won the lottery or something.

"Thinking eh? Hm… well how about you stop all that thinking and get ready?" Sal smiled as he leaned against the stacked boxes as Erin eyed him curiously.

"Get ready for what?"

"For visiting our cousins of course!"

Sal exclaimed as Erin gawked at her uncle. She had completely forgot about that, and that's because Uncle Sal couldn't stop talking about it. He was pretty excited to see their distant cousins for some reason. Why? Erin had no clue.

"Well get going, love! I promised them that we would be on time, slow poke!~" Sal teased as he playfully tossed Erin a nearby rag, and the now alert girl caught it before giving her uncle a sly grin.

"A time lord is never late he arrives precisely when he means too." Erin waved a finger in the air as her uncle laughed at the mixture of different novels his niece used as reference in her little comeback. At least now he knew he was doing something right.

It took about thirty minutes before Uncle Sal finally reached the gates of the estate, Aunt Edith informed him that their cousins would be residing at. And even then it took about another good thirty minutes to drive down the heavily forested road that led to the stunning Victorian mansion that Erin was now gaping at. If there was one thing Erin learned about her relatives was that—they were bloody rich!

"Woah…."

"Tch, close your mouth, Erin or else you'll catch flies." Sal smirked as he jumped out of his old pickup truck and before he could open his niece's door a maid had already done it.

"Welcome, Miss Erin and Lord Sal, to the Liddell's summer home." The maid curtsy as Erin stepped out (not really paying attention to the servant's words)and continued to stare at the huge house, it was enormous! More than enormous! It was ginormous! How many people were even living there!? Surely it could house maybe two hundred families! "Please, follow me." The maid interrupted Erin's thoughts as the house servant led the way towards the mansion.

"Don't worry, Erin I've seen bigger. In fact did I ever tell you I've been to the royal palace?" Sal said as Erin swiftly cranked her head towards her uncle.

"Really?"

"Yup! The queen needed some work done on one of the royal vehicles so she personally called me up and—" Erin tuned him out after that, knowing her beloved uncle was off sporting one of his many tall tales, though she won't deny it—she did find some of her uncle's tales amusing.

As the two followed the maid inside the house, it was no surprise that the inside looked just as fabulous and extravagant as the outside. The walls were decked with beautifully woven tapestries of serene forests and other landmarks, which the red and gold wallpaper only brought out the elegance of the portraits more. And as they continued down the many twisting hallways the humble mechanic and niece were afraid to even breath, due to the many valuables that were being displayed at what seemed to be at every corner. Sal and Erin had remained silent during the whole journey too busy admiring the art work and Victorian beauty of the home to at least have a proper conversation with each other.

"Lady Alice and Lady Edith are waiting for you inside." The maid gave the two another curtsy before bowing and leaving them in front of large mahogany double doors.

"…Shall we go in?" Uncle Sal asked as he nervously reached for the doorknob. Aunt Edith had said their relatives were business people and now the guy was wondering what TYPE of business was this part of the family was into. Hopefully not the illegal kind.

"Yeah." Erin nodded anxiously as her uncle pushed opened one of the doors as she pushed the other open. And much to their surprise (mostly her uncle's) instead of tough looking mafia women sitting in the room polishing their guns, there were elegant obviously aristocrat ladies who were sipping their morning tea.

"Ah!~ You must be Sal and Erin! Welcome!~" The younger woman of the two, who had raven-black hair cut into a stylish bob with bright green eyes greeted them as she gracefully rose from her seat and beckoned for them to come join them.

"Um..Hello…You must be—" Sal trailed off as he walked up to lady who surprisingly roughly grabbed his hand and shook it wildly.

"Edith…named after your Aunt I believe and this is my sister Alice." Edith smiled as she pointed to her older sister who looked so fragile and petite in her arm chair. And Erin couldn't help but notice that the woman looked like someone she knew, and she couldn't place her finger on it, quite yet, but she could have sworn she had seen that same light brown hair and big turquoise eyes before. But where?

"Hello Alic—"

"I'm sorry but my sister is quite ill." Edith swiftly interrupted as she placed herself between Sal and Alice.

"Ill? I'm sorry to hear that….should we come back another time then?" Sal asked as he noticed that Alice had grown very pale.

"Oh no! Please your already here, so just relax. We don't get to see relatives much so we're actually happy you came to visit. But please if you could…just stay away from Alice." Edith smiled though Erin couldn't help but feel that that wasn't the whole truth. Because as she examined her cousin Alice more, it almost seemed like she was—afraid? But of who? Certainly not of Uncle Sal, he was completely harmless as Erin was concerned. But then again maybe she was imagining things.

Moments passed and over all the experience was delightful, except for the part where Erin was forced to drink tea out of courtesy. She hated the vile liquid but when she tried to politely deny the offer her uncle shot her one of those looks and she had to force the horrible stuff down her throat. That was the last time she would ever drink the stuff. She preferred the sweet warm taste of hot cocoa over the bitter drink any day.

"So is it just you and Alice visiting?" Uncle Sal asked as Edith opened her mouth to speak when surprisingly Alice answered the question.

"No, it's just the two of us." Alice's voice was soft and gentle, definitely matching her angelic image. But still it was certainly a surprise since the woman hadn't muttered a single word during the whole time Erin had been here.

"Oh is that—"

**SLAM!**

"Mistress! AL—" A flustered maid immediately clamped her mouth shut as her startled eyes landed on both Erin and Uncle Sal.

"Yes Samantha? What is it? We have guests as you can see." Edith smiled though Erin couldn't help but feel a dark aura leak off from the beautiful woman.

"Uh…it's just..that..well…um.. HE…is trying to escape again…and this time HE has..…um…hostages." The maid nervously twiddled her fingers as the guests remained clueless at what the maid was blabbing about but the ladies of the establishment knew exactly what was going on.

"A h-h-hostage!?" Alice jumped up to her feet as she gathered her flowing skirt and wasted no time rushing out of the room, which once again shocked the guests.

"Alice! Wait I'm sure it's not a big dea—"

"**YOUNG MASTER! PUT RUTH DOWN!" **

Multiple voices were heard screaming as Edith paled and took off after her sister, slamming the doors behind her and leaving Erin and Uncle Sal hopelessly confused.

"Well…this certainly is interesting, don't you think?" Sal awkwardly smiled as Erin placed her tea cup down.

"If you count drinking terrible tea and our cousins are hiding something as interesting, then yeah I guess so." Erin bluntly stated as Sal sunk deeper into his chair. Maybe coming to this place was a bad idea and as he was about to state his concern to his niece they were interrupted by a loud crash.

**CRASH!**

"**HE DROP HER!" **

The voices Erin and Sal heard once again screamed causing the two to rush towards the door and fling them open—what they saw next was something out of their wildest dreams.

Maids were circled around a small clearing below a stairway, where they were pulling a lady out of a huge bubble-filled tub, the soapy water spilling all over the tiled floor. Which wasn't so strange, but the craziest thing that both mechanic and child couldn't believe was that there were about three maids dangling high above the tub from a large chandelier, each wrapped up in rope cocoons. But what really made Erin's mouth drop was the small boy, armed with a knife, that was also hanging on the swinging thing, getting ready to cut through the ropes of what Erin supposed was his next victim.

"Alexander Louis Liddell! You get down here this instant!" Alice seethed as she angrily stomped her foot and pointed to the soaking wet ground.

"NEVER! Not until my demands are met!" Alex cried as he waved his blade in the air triumphantly. He already made one maid walk the plank and he wasn't afraid to have another meet the same watery fate.

"Alex-darling! Let's be reasonable! Come jump into your auntie's arms~~" Edith cooed as she had her arms stretched out in front of her.

How was that even considered reasonable? We may never know.

"Sorry auntie Edith! But it's too late for me! I've already gone too far!~" Alex declared dramatically as Erin sweated, and couldn't believe what she was seeing but then again—this boy was Alex, the same Alex who took candy from complete strangers and bought half of a hardware store.

"Heh, this is kind of like them soap operas, oh hey! Look a pun! Hahaha! Do you get it, Erin? Soap opera because there's soap all over the—" Sal shut his mouth as numerous maids, cousins and niece shot the poor guy death glares.

"Alex! Get down her—"

"No! Mother I will not come down until you promise to let me go into town!" Alex stubbornly refused as Alice let out a tired sigh. You could tell this wasn't the first time the mother had to deal with the kid and his demands.

"And why do you want to do that? I already told you how dangerous—"

"Sorry mother but I promised someone I would hang out with them! And a promise is a promise!" Alex shouted as Erin stiffened in place. Though the mother and aunt had no idea who this someone was but a certain foolish fifteen year old girl that saved a sweet-loving idiot knew exactly who that was and sadly—it was her.

Erin sucked in a small breath as she moved towards Alice and started to rapidly wave her hands back and forth.

"Oi! Alex! Come down will you! Stop causing your mother so much trouble! Your best friend has came to come play with you!" Erin called out as Alex suddenly realized that she was there. Which actually turned out to be a bad thing—a VERY bad thing.

"Erin! You're really here!? Wow! I'll come down straight away! Catch me!" Alex grinned as he tossed his weapon aside and without any hesitation jumped off about forty feet into the air.

"UWAH! ALEX! YOU BLOODY IDIOT!"

**~.X.~**

"Erin! Ohayo!" Alex eagerly greeted the teen who looked absolutely drained. So what exactly happened after Alex jumped from the chandelier? It's quite simple actually, gravity did what it was supposed to and Alex surprisingly landed on something soft—unfortunately that something was Erin. And ever since then she was forced to visit her COUSIN every fricken day. Uncle Sal and Cousin Edith thought it would be good for them but Erin certainly believed it was going to be the end of her. Everyday her uncle would drop her off and everyday Alex would cheerfully greet her in some new language he learned and EVERYDAY he would drag her into some new trouble.

"Hello Alex…" Erin sluggishly said as Alex excitedly grabbed her hand and rushed off down the hallway with Erin in tow. She usually didn't like people touching her but as she learned over the past couple of days Alex was the opposite and required that he at least get to hug his cousin and tug her around. Which reasons beyond her, she let him.

"Ah! Erin, today let's play in my room and later we can eat cake and then play video games! And maybe if we're sneaky enough we can run past the guards and sneak into town!" Alex happily chirped as Erin nodded along with his ideas. In the beginning she was hesitant and always said no to the dangerous things but hanging out with Alex, you just learned that no matter what you did—it led to some sort of trouble.

"Sounds like a plan but won't Cousin Alic—"

"Mother…she isn't here…she hasn't been her for two days now…I don't know when she will be back." Alex swiftly cut off Erin who froze, halting her cousin's walk.

"She's….gone? " Erin repeated, surprised that she never noticed that her cousin wasn't here, but then again it was a large house so she figured she had to be somewhere inside. "What about Edith?" Erin continued as Alex remained awfully silent.

"She left too…they had work to do…" Alex muttered before he went back to cheerfully skipping ahead of Erin. "Which is great because then we have the whole house to ourselves!~" Alex spun around as he tossed his hands up in the air, almost as if he was trying to toss a weight off his shoulders.

"Right…though…being here by yourself…isn't that...lonely?" Erin asked as Alex jerked to a stop and stared at Erin, and for a moment she could have sworn she saw a deep pain flash before his eyes but it was so fast she wasn't sure if she had actually seen it.

"Hm? Why would I be lonely when I have you? Heh, when your around, how could I ever complain of feeling alone?" Alex smiled as he grabbed Erin's hand, causing her to blush at the compliment. Nobody ever told her that before.

"Heh, I guess so….I am pretty awesome…" Erin joked along as Alex laughed and began to run down the hallway.

"Come on Erin! Let's go paint the roses red!"

"W-W-Wait Alex! We can't paint the roses red! That's absurd!"

"It isn't when you have some old red paint lying around!"

"Alexander Liddell, if we get caught I'm blaming you!"

"You can blame me all you want but in the end we're going to be prison buddies!~~"

**~.X.~**

"So what brought you to Stratford-Upon-Avon anyways?" Erin asked as she strolled along the streets of the town with Alex, who was too busy eyeing everything with childish wonder.

"Huh? Oh….mother got tired of all the kidnappings so she brought me to the countryside where it would happen less." Alex nonchalantly replied as if it was no big deal, while Erin sweatdropped at the idea.

"Kidnap? You were kidnapped before?"

Though once you really thought about it….it wasn't much of a surprise.

"Yeah…like twenty times…maybe more, I stopped counting a loooonnngg time ago.~"

Alex grinned as Erin still couldn't believe it, she never knew her cousin had been kidnapped not just once but over twenty times! And you would think he would have learned his lesson already, apparently this boy was truly an idiot and had to constantly be supervised. "It must have been hard…." Erin said as she came to a stop in the middle of a small stone bridge above one of the town's waterways. "Nah, after a while you get used to it…. It's no big deal." Alex assured his cousin as he sat on the edge and looked down below the clear glass top of the river below them.

"Is that so?"

"Maybe…" Alex muttered underneath his breath, catching Erin a bit off guard. What did maybe even mean? But as Erin was slowly finding out Alex wasn't the cheerful kid he seemed to be and she couldn't help but be a little sad for her cousin. There had to be some way to lighten the mood.

"Oh Alex…have you seen my sonic screw driver? I need it this instant! Or we'll never save the queen from the evil daleks!" Erin commanded as Alex curiously looked at her before realizing what she was doing.

"Um..right! Don't worry doctor! I'll find it right away!"

Alex offered her a small salute before bounding off down the road to look for a suitable sonic screwdriver. Erin laughed at her cousin's enthusiasm, she had let Alex borrow some Doctor Who novels and even watched a couple of episodes with him and lest to say she won another over to the fandom. Today seemed like a good da—

"Hello there girly.~ What is a cute thing like you doing around here?"

Suddenly a small band of male teens appeared, dressed in hardcore punker outfits, gazing at an indifferent Erin.

"Taking a walk, and I suggest you do the same." Erin spat out, obviously not feeling up to dealing with the probably self-proclaimed bad a**es.

"Aw..don't be like that girly! We just want to play a little!" One of the guys reached forward towards the girl before Erin swiftly smacked his hand away from her.

"Don't touch me!" Erin shouted, which only got the small band of delinquents even more riled up.

"I know! Let's play a game! Come on guys! Let's play keep away!" The leader of the group, an oily boy with a green Mohawk smirked as he grabbed Erin and began shoving her around. Thus beginning the "game", where poor Erin was shoved from guy to guy with no chance of escaping.

"Let me go! Stop! Please!" Erin cried as she felt tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she strongly held them back fearing that any signs of weakness would only prolong the bullying.

"HaHaHa Why would we sto—"

"Ya! I can think of a few reasons!" A new voice cut in, which caused the guys to stop their game and stare at the new intruder, which happened to be a certain thirteen year old brunette. "Release Erin this minute you creeps or face my WRATH!" Alex threatened though it came more off as cute than anything.

"BWHAHAHAHA! Hey girly how come you were holding out on us?"

"Yeah How come you never told us you had such a cute friend?"

"She's simply adorable!"

The brutes talked amongst themselves as Erin deadpanned and Alex felt his blood boil. If there was one thing he hated most—it was when his manhood was questioned.

"Tch…you know my fist have been itching to pound into some ugly faced rat-a*** looking jerks!" Alex cussed causing Erin to be a bit alarmed, since he was only thirteen after all and shouldn't be spurting such words…especially to some blood-thirsty punk rockers. "And since you disrespected my manhood, and put your filthy fingers on Erin..I'm gunna beat you until you look normal again!"

"Oi say that again you b—"

**SMACK!**

With a single kick Alex had the guy soaring across the bridge, causing both his little group and Erin's jaws to drop. How could a little shrimp like Alex even do that!? "G-G-Get him!" The leader shouted as he held Erin in place and watched as his cronies attacked Alex but the small boy was faster and seemed to be knowledgeable in hand-to-hand combat. So in conclusion the street fighters went down fairly quickly. "W-W-What the hell is he!?" The leader cried out as Erin laughed, she had wondered the same thing herself.

"An idiot, actually.." Erin continued to laugh as the guy stared at her and then at an approaching Alex who was now cracking his knuckles.

"Forget this! I'm out of here!" the guy screamed as he pushed Erin roughly to the side and sped off. Which should had been the end of that but the punk-rocker had shoved Erin really hard, which caused her to lose her balance and fall off the bridge.

"Erin!"

"Waahhh! Alex!"

Erin screamed as she fell down towards the water, as Alex rushed to the side of the bridge and before he even knew what he was doing he jumped off also.

**SPLASH!**

Luckily Erin knew how to swim, unluckily Alex did not. So suddenly the hero became the damsel in distress. Who would have seen that coming?

"UWAH! HELP! DROWNING! HELP!" Alex gurgled as he frantically splashed around like a dying fish and Erin calmly watching the whole thing, wondered how this all happened.

"Alex…remain calm…I'll come get you." Erin calmly said as she began to swim towards the panicking dude. But sadly since water filled his ears, he hadn't heard a word she said and he believed he was going to die.

"GAAAHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO DROWN! AND I'M SO YOUNG TOO!~~"

"Alex calm down!"

"WAAAHHH!"

"Alex you idiot! Stop splashing!"

"GOOD-BYE CRUEL WORLD!"

"YOU IDIOT! IF YOU COULDN'T SWIM THEN WHY COME AFTER ME!?"

**~.X.~**

"Hahaha! So that's what happened?" Uncle Sal laughed as he watched his niece dry off Alex's hair, just like a concerned mother would.

"Yes and this imbecile just had to jump off the bridge after me, knowing he couldn't swim." Erin frowned as she rubbed the towel against his head harder. "Ow!OW! OW! Erin~~ It hurts!" Alex whined as Erin ignored his pleas and continued to scrub his head vigorously. "Good!" Erin coldly responded before finishing and began to glare at her idiotic cousin. Sal on the other hand found the whole thing rather amusing.

"Heh, so I guess you're one of those people if you see one of your friends jumping off bridges you'll do the same? " Sal teased as Alex smiled.

"Yeah! Definite—OW!"

"Just because all your friends are jumping off bridges doesn't mean you do it too! Idiot! I swear! You never learn!" Erin scolded Alex before throwing her hands in the air and stormed off towards the bathroom, muttering about taking a shower to ease her already flustered nerves.

"Heh…Don't take what Erin said literally, Alex I'm sure she di—"

"No…I am an idiot…" Alex interrupted Sal as he stared at the hard ground. He knew he was idiot, he chose to be, but hearing it from Erin kind of hurt him badly for some reason. Uncle Sal seeing the poor kid's gloom decided to clear things up between the two. They had turned out to be such good friends and his niece seemed to open up a bit more and smile more often. So it was the lest he could do.

"Alex…don't be so hard on yourself. Erin...she was just worried about you that's all. Your one of the first friends she made." Sal patted Alex's back as the boy still seemed a bit depressed. "Look….Erin…well she's been in a tough spot, she was a love child you know."

At the words love child, Alex perked up, he didn't know what that meant but it sounded interesting enough.

"Love child?"

"Yeah…it's when a parent has a child with another person rather than with their spouse." Sal explained as Alex understandingly nodded and was a bit shocked by the news. "So to hide their shame, they locked Erin away and treated her quite cruelly and by cruelly I mean beat her whenever they had the chance." Sal continued as Alex eyes widen in disbelief. How could someone treat Erin like that? She was so nice! A little blunt, but then again Alex always admired truthful people.

"Why are you telling me this?" Alex numbly responded as Sal paused for a moment before speaking up.

"So maybe you can understand, why Erin is sometimes hard on you. It's not that she hates you or anything but rather it's because she's afraid to lose the first friend she has ever had. You can understand that right?" Uncle Sal put a hand on the boy's shoulder who instantly cheered up and stood up on his feet.

"Right! And don't you worry about her either Uncle Sal! I'll make sure to protect her!" Alex declared as he smiled at the old man who returned the gesture.

"That's the spirit!"

"What is?" A freshly washed Erin interrupted dressed in a huge tee and some pajama pants as the two guys froze and turned towards the slightly suspicious girl.

"Nothing!" Alex shouted as he dashed forward only to be clotheslined by Erin's outstretched arm. "OW!" Alex tumbled as the girl grabbed the back of his shirt and handed him a towel and a spare change of clothes.

"Go take a shower…or else you'll get a cold." Erin motherly advised as Alex's cheeks burned a dark red and he gratefully took the supplies.

"Thank you…"

"Yeah…now hurry up! The warm water won't be on for long."

Erin waved him off as Alex dashed down the hallways wondering how warm water could run out? He was awfully rich so he never experienced a cold shower before and he didn't want to anytime soon.

"Heh, how motherly of you Erin." Uncle Sal smirked as he went to go sit down by the fireplace and took out his old English pipe.

"Well someone has to watch him, who knows what will happen if you don't." Erin sighed as she collapsed into the comfy arm chair, today had been a long day. "You know….you two are a lot alike." Uncle Sal inhaled his smoke before softly gazing at the burning fire. "Oh really? How so?" Erin rolled her eyes as she sank deeper into the comfortable plushness of the seat. "Well, Cousin Edith told me a bit of his history. Want to hear it?" Sal asked as Erin stared at her uncle for a moment before making her decision. "His past is his past…so shouldn't he be the one to tell me?" Erin maturely stated as her uncle chuckled.

"Ah!~ So you really do care for your cousin. That's good…she likes you too."

"Eh? Uncle Sal, your mistaken, Alex is a he not she." Erin corrected feeling a bit sorry for her cousin who was always misidentified as a female.

"That's not what I heard." Sal said as a heavy silence filled the small living room and soon Erin's curiosity got the better of her.

"Fine…go ahead and tell me." Erin sighed defeated as her uncle's grey eyes lit up.

"Well, as you may or may not know…Alice is Alex's mother and of course there has to be a father but in this case there is none. Nobody knows who he is and Alice refuses to talk about him, so growing up without a father is already tough, but then to hide who you really are is even more troublesome. As you should know." Sal said, though it seemed as if the older gentleman was talking to himself rather to Erin.

"Hiding who you really are?" Erin asked perplex as her uncle nodded, though deep inside she knew what he was talking about.

"Yeah…for reasons beyond us, Alice forced Alex to dress as a boy, but in reality our Alexander is an Alexandria."

"What!? But—" Erin trailed off before shutting her mouth. Now that she had thought about it, it wasn't so unbelievable, Alex was short and looked waaaay too adorable to be a guy.

"Yup…and as you already know Alice is never around due to her business so Alex is always alone. And because their company is so huge and Alex is a good-looking child, she gets kidnapped from time to time. Edith told me…one kidnapping turned out very awful, it scarred the poor girl for life. She saw terrible things that no child should ever have to experience or see in their lives—especially when they were just eight years old." Uncle Sal finished as Erin started to pale a bit and felt slight anxiety rise up in her stomach.

"Why are you telling me this?" Erin squeezed onto the arm chair, trying to find her happy place but it seemed so far away, so unreachable.

"Because…I think you two are good for each other and can help lift the other up. Family is supposed to do that you know and don't you think it's about time our family starts building each other up rather than breaking them down?" Uncle Sal wise words resonated in the air as Erin slowly started to feel her feet on the ground and the uneasiness suddenly went away.

"Yeah…I think it's time we did."

**~.X.~**

"Erin pyong~ Look at me pyong!~" Alex grinned as he wore some fluffy pink bunny ears he had found in one of Uncle Sal's Halloween boxes. It had been two weeks since he had decided to stay with Erin and Uncle Sal, since his mother and Aunt Edith would be back God knows when. Plus this meant he could protect/annoy Erin twenty-four seven.

"Huh? What do you—OH GREAT…ALEX TAKE THOSE OFF!" Erin screamed as she dropped her book and nearly climbed up the back of the chair she was once sitting on.

"Why, pyong?~ Don't you think I look even cuter in them, pyong?~" Alex cutely held up his hands to his face and began to hop all around the room as his cousin whitened even more and began to nervously sweat.

"NO! YOU LOOK LIKE THE DEVIL HIMSELF! NOW GET AWAY FROM ME!" Erin cried as she felt her eyes drift back and forth from conscious, any longer and she was afraid that she would pass out.

"Huh? But…it's just bunn—" Alex paused for a moment before a devilish smirk appeared on his face. "My dearest, beautifulest, cousin Erin…could it be that….you're afraid of rabbits?"

Bingo.

"N-N-No! Don't be silly! Hahaha! Me? Afraid of rabbits?" Erin sheepishly laughed knowing if she showed any fear Alex would take advantage of it. Which usually she wouldn't be afraid of her friend but Alex was a bit upset at her, for putting a candy restriction on him so if he found out this little secret, he would certainly use it against her. Even though they were family the boy was obsessed with his sweets.

"You are afraid of rabbits!" Alex exclaimed as his eyes lit up with mischief.

"No y-y-your wrong!"

"Fufufufu~ I'm gunna get you, pyong!~" Alex shouted as he hopped after Erin who immediately took off screaming down the hallway.

"NOOOOOOOO! GET AWAY!WAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"BWHAHAHAHA! Here comes Alex-cotton tail~ Coming down the cotton trail~ Going to scare Erin because it's fun!~~" Alex sang happily.

And just like that the great chase began.

"UNNNNNNCCCCCLLLLLEEE SAAAAAAALLLLL!" Erin screamed as she ran straight into the mechanic shop with tears streaming behind her along with a certain bunny-hopping boy.

"Huh? Erin? What's wrong?" Uncle Sal said as he finished hauling in a rather large item draped with a sheet over it inside his office.

"ALEXXX!" Erin blubbered as she ran straight into her uncle's gut and wrapped her arms around his waist. Uncle Sal was rather on the tall side and the small girl only came up to his belly.

"What are you guys up too agai—eh? Alex where did you get those bunny ears?" Sal question as he spotted the pink things sticking out from the top of Alex's head. "I found them in a box." Alex answered as he tried to hop closer to Erin but the girl quickly hid behind Sal. Suddenly realizing what was going on, Sal let out a long sigh and put a hand on Alex's shoulder. "Oi! What kind of cousin, scares his only favorite cousin in the whole wide world like that." Sal seemingly scolded Alex who was now pouting. Erin of course was utterly grateful and glad that the terrifying experience would soon be over.

"If you're going to scare her then you at least have to do it correctly.~" Sal slyly grinned as he pulled out a pair of black bunny ears from his jumpsuit and placed them on his head.

What?

"MUTINY!" Erin yelled panicky as she rushed towards the door.

"Alex Cottontail! After the human! So procedure relentless tickling can commence!" Uncle Sal ordered as he placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest as Alex gave him a salute.

"Aye! Aye! General CarrotTop! Pyong!~"

And once again the chase began but soon the two devious rabbits caught their human and operation tickle Erin until she pees her pants was put into action. "WAAHHHH!HAHAHAHA! YOU BLOODY IDIOTS!HAHAHAHA! I'M SO SCARED! HAHAHAHA!" Erin wept as the tickle torture continued until, of course Alex's fingers got tired and the bunny ears started to hurt both guy's heads so they took a break.

"Heh, who would have known Erin was scared of bunnies~" Alex teased as Erin finally composed herself and glared at the two devils.

"It's a logical fear, you know, there's even a name for it." Erin pouted though a warm blush was shown across her face. Out of all the things she had to be afraid of—why did it have to be something as irrational as rabbits!?

"Sure, sure!" Alex lazily waved his hand before he noticed the large item Uncle Sal had brought in. "Hey Uncle Sal, what's that?" Alex pointed to the foreign object as Erin's eyes followed Alex's finger and she too became curious at the bulky thing.

"Huh? Oh that? Well…you see a one-legged man gave it to me for free after I helped save him from a forest fire." Sal coolly said as Erin rolled her eyes knowing it was just one of her uncle's wild tales, but Alex on the other hand believed every word.

"WOW! That's so cool! Uncle Sal you're the best!" Alex gushed as Sal smiled and got up from the floor and proudly marched over towards the thing. "So what is it?" Alex eagerly asked as Uncle Sal's smile widen and he placed a hand on the thing.

"Well ladies and gentlemen, what's underneath curtain number one is—" Uncle Sal grinned as the children leaned in closer before he yanked the cover off revealing a—" Piano!"

….

….

…..

"Wow! It's beautiful!" Erin excitedly said as she ran over to the old wooden thing and ran her fingers over the slightly dusty keys. It may have looked ancient but Erin could tell it was in pretty good condition, though it was too bad she didn't know how to play the thing—she was pretty fond of classical music.

"Oh…" Alex mumbled as he remained seated in his spot and didn't seem too interested in the thing. Which was strange since he was usually the overly-excited one, in fact Erin remembered showing him a sparkly rock and the kid went berserk over it.

"Is something wrong Alex?" Sal asked as Alex shook his head no and slowly rose to his feet. "You don't like it? I thought maybe we could learn how to play i—"

"I already know how to play." Alex coldly said causing both Erin and Sal to stare at the boy in worry. What was with the sudden mood swing? "Then maybe you could show us?" Sal suggested as Alex's expression fell and his palms turned into fist. "I-I-I don't play anymore…not since…." Alex's voice trailed off and the mood suddenly darkened.

"Well, that's okay. I'm sure you were good at it." Erin smiled as she patted Alex's shoulder. "Though, I wished I could play the instrument…oh well, I guess some time lords aren't amazing at everything." Erin laughed as Alex realized that his cousin was trying to cheer him up.

"Hahaha! Right!" Uncle Sal laughed along with his niece as he tousled the hair on Alex's head. "I guess I should return it to that one-eyed pirate then." Uncle Sal tapped his chin as Erin frowned at her uncle.

"I thought it was a one-legged man."

"Huh? Did I say that? I could have sworn I said—"

Suddenly their conversation was halted as an enchanting sound filled the small room, capturing their attention. And as the two cranked their necks towards the noise, they were surprised to see a focused Alex skillfully playing the piano, his fingers grazing the keys as if he was orchestrating the piano itself to produce the heavenly music. But what came even more surprising was that the boy started to sing in a different language which Erin could only guess was Russian or something.

"_Poka zemlja ewe vertitsja,_

_Poka ewe jarok svet,_

_Gospodi, daj zhe ty kazhdomu,_

_Chego u nego net:"_

Alex started off softly and as the song progressed the intensity of the words and playing increased and Erin and Uncle Sal were all but captured by Alex's performance. He was simply amazing and as the song closed to an end Alex closed the piano top and turned to face his "audience" who had now began to clap wildly.

"Alex that was amazing! And I had no idea what you were saying!" Erin chuckled as Alex blushed as Uncle Sal wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulder. "Who would have known we had a musician in the family?" Sal teased as Alex blushed even harder.

"Thank you….though I'm kind of rusty…actually… I haven't played in a while…but I'll play for you guys!" Alex shut his eyes as he shouted out the last part, hoping they wouldn't laugh.

"Heh, well bloody hell Alex! We'll be honored." Sal smiled as he gave Alex a good slap on his back.

"R-Really?"

Alex opened his eyes to be greeted by the smiling faces of—his family. The thought comforted Alex as he felt a smile slowly spread on his face, surely he could stay in this sanctuary forever.

"Yeah. You can play for us all the time!"

"I would like that."

**~.X.~**

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO GO! NO!" Alex screamed as his mother and aunt pulled him towards the limousine that was parked in front of the small mechanic shop.

"Alex!"

Erin shouted only to be held back by her Uncle who knew this day would come. Alice and Edith were back from their business trip and had decided to go back to their home in London—taking Alex with them.

"Erin! I don't want to go! I DON'T!" Alex wept profusely as his mother and aunt had a hard time trying to stuff him in the back seat, the kid was unusually strong. "Don't let them take me! I don't want to be alone! Not again!" Tears freely fell from the child's face as Erin tightened her fist, helpless to do anything.

"D-D-Don't cry you, Idiot!"

Erin shouted as Alex went limp in his mother's arms giving her time to shove him into the back seat.

"E-E-Erin.."

Alex's teal eyes filled with pain as Erin remained strong, she had too, or else who would?

"Don't cry...because this won't be the last time we see each other! We are family after all right!?"

Erin continued to speak loudly as everyone stared at the girl. There was a long moment of silence before a still teary-eyed Alex spoke up.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

And with those words said the door was slammed tight and quick words of good-bye were exchanged. The sound of a car engine resonated in the air and as it slowly reversed itself out of the drive-way, and onto the street Erin found herself foolishly chasing after the vehicle.

"Erin!" Uncle Sal called after her worriedly as she ignored his cries and ran faster after the speeding car.

"Alex! Make sure you don't talk to strangers!"

Why was she doing this? Why was she blindly chasing after the car? Was it because it was only human nature to go help a fellow stranger or perhaps it was because, after all, even though she resented it in the beginning—

"And make sure you eat vegetables instead of sweets okay!"

"Plus don't get into trouble! Really try your hardest not too!"

"And most of all! Don't forget me you IDIOT!"

They were family.

**~.X.~**

* * *

**So this is part one of a two-part one-shot! This is also dedicated to Sleeping Moon who let me use her wonderful OC Erin! And who also helped me write this..so Thank you! :D Also the next chapter will be not as depressing since it's acutally a one-shot of a picnic in Wonderland so if you liked this chapter, then stick around! Anyways! Show some love by reading, reviewing, following or faving! Whatever you want until next time! Toodle-loo! Oh! and before i forget! The song Alex is playing is The Prayer of Fransico Villon by Regina Spektor (which i do not own) so if you want too you can go listening to it...i have no idea how to speak russian but it's actually a really pretty song! Anyways bye-bye~**


	2. Let's Meet Again in Wonderland

The room was quiet. Too quiet, to say in the least and it worried the March Hare, Elliot March, quite a bit. Especially when there was so much work to be done and as the blonde, half-rabbit ma—er long eared dog man stared at his rather bored boss, his concern only grew.

"Blood…um….you know those papers are due... pretty soon ri—"

"Excuse me, Elliot but are you in charge of this establishment?" The raven haired man, with sharp sea-foam colored eyes lazily asked his companion who stiffly sat up in his chair.

"Well no but—"

"Then your opinion doesn't matter."

Blood Dupre sharply cut off Elliot, who's fluffy brown ears dramatically dropped as he began to sulk. The two men's relationship was a bit complicated, though not really. Blood Dupre was the Mad Hatter of Wonderland as Elliot was the March Hare (as stated as before) and though the famous novel of Lewis Carroll says that (or at least gives the image) the couple always knew each other— that wasn't the case with these certain role holders. In fact, Elliot never met the Hatter until Blood rescued him from the Circus, a terrible place that he'd rather forget and ever since then Elliot devoted his life to his boss.

And today was like any other, Blood was behind his desk working—well at least gave the impression of LOOKING at his paper work as Elliot continued to bring in more enormous stacks of killed trees. And it would have remained the same way like any other day IF the door wasn't slightly opened.

"Oh gracious! It's the cutest thing I swear!"

A maid giggled with another as they drew closer to Blood's study, and since they were not being discreet at all, their shrill voices could be heard from inside the room. Elliot's rabbit ea—er dog ear's (poor guy was in denial about being part of the rabbit species) being oh-so sensitive picked up the chortling easily and he instantly grew annoyed. If the maids were being this loud then how was Blood supposed to finish his work, swiftly drawing and cocking his gun the March Hare was about to go silence the chattering help until Blood raised his hand halting the blonde's thirst for trying out his new gun.

"Let's see what else they have to say." Blood ordered as he waited for the servants to grow closer towards his office doors. He was a tad curious about what was so "cute" at HIS mansion, if anything people used the words, magnificent, stupendous, elegant, beautiful—NOT cute. Plus it would give him about a minute or two to get off of work, all the tedious reading about treaties and negotiation was rather boring.

"Really? Then I really wished I could see it." The maid's companion sighed heavily before the other spoke.

"You can! Just ask Shirley if you could take the Foreigners sweets to them. I swear Martha, it's absolutely adorable! The tea party their having is simpl—"

**SLAM! **

"Who's having a tea party?"

"WAH! M-M-Master Blood!"

The maids held each other in terror as their Lord stood in the doorway, leaning against the wooden frame, coolly, or rather tried to give off the impression of cool—since it's quite hard to do so after you threw the door off its hinges.

Yeah, way to go Blood. You'll be paying for that later.

"I asked you, who is throwing a tea party on MY premises?" The Mafia boss ordered as Elliot quickly appeared by his side, wondering the same thing. Only his boss could hold tea parties on the mansion grounds, so if anyone was breaking the rules, he would have to punish them.

"W-W-Well that is…s-s-sir…it's Lord A-A-Alexander…and M-M-Miss Erin." One maid stuttered as the other anxiously nodded her head in agreement.

Ah, so that's who was holding a private tea party on Blood's territory.

The Mad Hatter felt his lips twitch into a devilishly smirk as he thought about the two Foreigners who had fallen into Wonderland. One was rare but two, well that was unthinkable. But yet it had happened and as the two journeyed around the dream-like world, the role holders learned a lot of interesting things about them. First off, the two ended up being related, distant cousins who hadn't seen each other in years and the boy, ended up actually being Alice's son. And if that wasn't surprising enough Blood had found out that Alexander was in fact a girl and hid his gender for Dealer knows why.

It had been over a month's time of time changes and the Hatter had somehow convinced both Outsiders to reside at his lovely mansion. He thought it would then be easy to sweep a certain blue-eyed Foreigner off her feet but it had been rather difficult since she was extremely—dense. Every time the Hatter had tried any moves on her, she took it as a challenge to her "man hood" and would absurdly force the mafiaso into some sort of test of who was manlier. But he greatly preferred that over the other thing she would idiotically ask if he treated her with any sort of affection, which was—if he was gay. The Hatter's mood instantly darkened as he thought about it…HOW COULD ANYONE THINK HE WAS GAY!?

Though of course he considered himself waaaay luckier than Elliot.

The poor guy was madly in love with Erin but unfortunately for him, she was absolutely and utterly TERRIFIED of rabbits and though he may never admit it—he was a rabbit. Ever since the first time he had met the girl, she would do whatever she could to avoid the role holder but that only made Elliot fight harder to gain her affection. And with the "treatment" he suggested (and a lot of prayer) Elliot believed she was slowly coming around, of course the key here being SLOW but at least it was something. Elliot hoped it would be only just a matter of time before he could claim the lovely Foreigner as his. Oh, how his clock ached to have her, just once look at him without fear.

But only time could tell if these star-crossed lovers would ever be together.

"Well then… I guess we will just have to crash this little tea party then." Blood's smirk widened as he grabbed his trusty top hat decorated lavishly with cards and real roses lining the brim, before strolling down the hallway.

"But Blood—"

"Elliot isn't it time for your little treatment with Erin?" The Hatter asked as a warm blush instantly covered the hare's face.

"Well um…I believe so—"

"Great then! Let's go." Blood grinned as he continued his walk, though a nagging question was still bothering his second-in-command's conscience.

"Blood…you're not just doing this to get out of work are you?"

No response.

"Blood?"

"What was that Elliot?"

"Urk! Y-Y-You really are doing it to get out of work…"

Elliot sulked as Blood did as Blood did best—ignore the hell out of other people's opinions that interfered with his. He wasn't skipping out on work if anything he was just….making sure that the tea parties held on his land were the BEST, as they should be.

"Tut, tut Elliot more walking and less talking."

"R-R-Right boss."

**~.X.~**

"Alex slowdown will you or else you'll cho—"

"COUGH! HACK! COUGH!"

"ALEX!"

Erin jumped up from her seat as she began to furiously pat her cousin's heaving back. The now twenty-year old woman couldn't believe her seventeen year old cousin (soon to be eighteen) still ate like a hungry child. She guessed there was some things time couldn't change.

**SMACK!**

"Gah! Cough...thank you…cough!" Alex wheezed as the piece of cake lodge in her throat finally went down.

"I told you not to eat so fast. It's not like the cake is going anywhere, you idiot."

Erin frowned as Alex bashfully rubbed the back of her head, her fingers trailing through her ridiculously short locks. Even after all these years Alex had kept up the façade that she was a he and Erin didn't mind it much, but still occasionally she wondered if her cousin actually liked to pretend she was a male.

"But Erin! Everyone knows that the best time to eat cake is as soon as it is set down! When it's fresh and still ridiculously fluffy! It's common sense ya know. In fact I think I even saw it in a science book once!" Alex childishly pouted as Erin snorted. That was a completely false accusation and her cousin was foolish enough to try to lie to Erin, especially just to try to distract her in order to steal Erin's piece of cake.

**SLAM!**

"Ow! Erin!" Alex whined as Erin held her child-like cousin's hand down and felt a sly smirk spread across her face.

"First off, Alex…That was a lie, because never have I known you to willingly open up a science book." Erin stated as Alex grimaced at the statement. "Secondly, nice try with the distraction, but I saw your hand moving towards my plate a long time ago." Erin paused as she watched her cousin's face twist even more in disappointment.

"And lastly, if you wanted my piece of cake you should have just asked."

At the sound of that Alex hopefully looked up at her older cousin and just as she was about to open her mouth to say something—Erin crushed her dreams.

"But of course if you eat too much sweets you're going to get cavities, so if you think you can have my cake—that's out of the question."

"E-E-Erin…your so cruel." Alex dramatically collapsed on the table as Erin released her sullen companion's hand and let out a small laugh.

Was it cruel? Maybe, but then again in the real world and even this cross-dimensional one, life was cruel. Erin knew this all too well, and suddenly feeling that certain nicotine itch the dark brunette pulled out her pack of cigarettes and took out one of the white sticks.

A heavy silence filled the air as Alex watched her cousin light the cigarette with her metal lighter and began to take a puff of the thin baton. Alex wasn't found of smoking at all, especially since it reminded her of a certain event in her life that she would like to gladly forget. But she knew why her cousin picked up the bad habit, Erin had told her cousin that her Aunt Edith was killed in a robbery gone wrong in America and Uncle Sal catching one of the attacker's bullets in his spine was now in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. So smoking was her way to cope with the tragedies.

It was quiet for a long time, with only the wind billowing around them like soft whispers. And pretty soon Alex got sick of it.

"You know… if I have to cut back on sweets then you should cut back on smoking." Alex said as Erin stiffened and stared at her now serious cousin.

"This is a completely different situation than your sweets addiction." Erin coldly responded as Alex remained unfazed by Erin's words and instead continued her case.

"Is not! And if I can't have cake then you can't have a cigarette! In fact, let's start now!~"

Alex happily smiled as she swiftly yanked the cig out of her mouth and crushed it onto a nearby tea tray.

"Hey! I paid good money for tha—"

"Too bad~ Now gimme the box."

"No wa—HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!"

Erin cried out as her green eyes widened in shock as Alex easily squeezed the hard cardboard box into a tiny ball and chunked it as far as she could. And far being like outer space far.

"Bye-Bye!~"

Alex waved at the box as Erin felt anger boil beneath her skin. Like she tried to say before she had paid VERY good money for that pack of cigarettes and it was her LAST box. Sure she could go buy another but since time was different here (and always rapidly changing) she didn't know how much time she would have until night fell.

"Alexandria Lorina Liddell….." Erin growled, using her cousin's REAL name, something she only did when she was VERY angry. And judging by Erin's very pissed off face—Alex knew she was dead.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" Erin screamed as she lunged towards Alex who immediately dodged the incoming attack and sped off as if satan himself was behind her.

Yup. Good-bye, Alex.

"WAAHHH! I'M SORRY ERIN! I WAS JUST TRYING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE!"

"OH TRUST ME! YOU'LL BE SORRY AFTER I'M FINISHED WITH YOU!"

"GAHHHH! MERCY! SANCTUARY! SANCTUARY!"

"THAT ONLY WORKS IF YOU'RE IN A CHURCH, IDIOT!"

**~.X.~**

Erin had chased her cousin a good while before finally cornering her near a rose bush.

"Heh, I got you no—"

The vengeful cousin trailed off as she turned dreadfully pale and her cousin noticing this, of course had to ask what was wrong. Especially when she made a promise to protect Erin.

"Uh…are you okay, Erin?"

"Ah…that is…uh….I…ha-ha…"

Erin turned another awful shade of white as her body started to tremble furiously. Alex making no sense out of her cousin's strange reaction was about to go comfort her –that is until she noticed something brown, fuzzy and adorable out of the corner of her eye. And suddenly recognizing what it was a huge goofy grin spread across Alex's face.

"My dearest, most precious, amazing cousin, Erin….don't tell me your still terrified of rabbits?" Alex teased as she wrapped an arm around the frightened woman, who very much rather be that she was a hundred miles away right now.

"N-N-No of course not! I-I'm an adult now…such childish fears had to be left behind."

Erin stuttered semi-truthfully, as she silently prayed that her answer would suffice Alex's thirst for revenge. The older cousin now realized that she had interfered with her cousin's sweets and chased her around the grand yard threatening to kill her.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

"Is that so? So if I go pick up the cuddly creature and brought it over here…you wouldn't mind?" Alex grinned as Erin furiously shook her head no, unable to speak since her voice seemed to be stuck in the back of her throat. Even with all the special "treatments" Mister March (or Elliot) had been giving her, the nerve-racking irrational fear was still present and it seemed like she couldn't get over her anxiety of rabbits.

"Alright then~ Here little bunny.~ Here boy.~"

Alex called out as she slowly approached the innocent, seemingly harmless creature. Forgetting one VERY important fact about herself.

**CHOMP!**

"UWAHH! IT BIT MEEEEE!"

Animals hated her.

"ALEX!"

"GAAHHHH! IT WON'T LET GO!" Alex cried as the fuzzy woodland creature continued to bite down into the fleshy intruder's hand, refusing to let go.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH! IT HURTS! GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!"

The girl continued to cry as she spun around in circles waving, tugging and trying to pull off the rabbit that seemed to have jaws of steel.

"ERIIIIINNNNNN! HELP ME!~~"

"I-I-I'M SORRY ALEX! I-I CAN'T! IT WAS NICE KNOWING YOU!"

Erin shut her eyes as she quickly turned around and started to run away with a terrified Alex following behind with the gnawing rabbit still biting into her hand.

"ERIN! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"I'M SORRY! IT'S TOO SCARY! TOO SCARY! I TOLD YOU RABBITS WERE EVIL!"

Erin shouted as the duo ran around in circles, screaming and crying, unaware that they were being watched by two certain men.

"Well, Elliot hurry up and do something." Blood ordered as his second in command gave him a strange look.

"Uh? Blood not to be rude or anything…but what do you mean?" Elliot curiously asked as Blood sighed before giving the blonde man a rather annoyed look.

"Talk to that rabbit to let go of my soon to be lover's hand. If anyone is going to be biting her it's me."

Blood casually said as Elliot held his chest as if he had just gotten shot. His boss's words struck him pretty hard.

"B-B-Boss…I'm not a rabbit!"

"Hm? Is that so? Ah, that's right, you think you're some sort of long-eared dog . My mistake. " Blood bluntly said as he stared at his Foreigner, a bit amused and worried as she continued to run around in frantic circles before suddenly stopping.

"GET THE HELL OFF!" Alex screamed one final time before cranking her arm back and with all her strength sent the demon rabbit from Hades off into the now setting sunset. "Ha! Take that you stupid bunny! I won this time!" Alex triumphantly cheered before walking over to a huddling Erin who was covering her ears in order to drown out her cousin's screams. She didn't want to listen to her only cousin be eaten alive by the human-devouring rabbit.

"Oi! Erin! It's safe now…" Alex softly smiled as she tapped the top of Erin's head causing her to look up for once at her short cousin.

"I-I-Is it?"

"Yeah… the evil fur ball is long gone…probably halfway across heart country by now." Alex joked as she reached up to push her bangs out of her face, letting Erin get a good look at her cousin's now bloody hand.

"Alex…your hand! It's bleeding badly!" Erin's voice went up an octave as she jumped to her feet and reached to examine Alex's hand. "It's not a big deal." Alex shrugged as her cousin carefully looked at her wound. It was bleeding quite profusely so she couldn't determine how deep the wound was but she figured either way, Alex should see a doctor.

"Actually, Miss…it is…you could have rabies."

"That voice….please don't tell me…" Alex sulked as she regrettably turned around to see the devil himself smirking at her. "Blood…Dupre…."

"In the flesh."

Blood coyly said as he waltzed up to the injured Foreigner and gently took her hand in his. "Ah, it seems like you're more delicate than you claim to be, Miss." Blood continued to tease as a vein swelled on her forehead. If there was one thing Alex did NOT like to be called it was—weak. Because of a sense of manly pride or whatever the reason she absolutely abhorred being referred to the word.

"Oh really? Tch! I'll show you weak! And also how many times do I have to tell you!? I'm not a gi—WAH!"

Alex was cut off mid-sentence as the Mad Hatter grabbed her wrist and tossed her easily over his shoulder.

"Well we should be going now. Oh, and Miss Erin I believe it's time for your treatment." Blood slyly looked over to the now blushing woman before continuing his way towards the looming mansion. Of course Alex had something to say the whole time he was strolling to his home.

"LET ME GO YOU SADISTIC JERK! PUT ME DOWN! I CAN WALK JUST FINE! ERRRRRIIIIINNNNN!~~"

"B-B-Bye, Alex…"

Erin muttered as once again blood drained from her face and she couldn't help her cousin at all. Since a slightly blushing rabbit-eared man stood next to her vigorously rubbing the back of his skull.

"Shall we get started then?"

Elliot halfheartedly grinned as Erin sheepishly nodded as the two were left alone in the rose garden.

Things were about to get interesting.

**~.X.~**

Erin's treatment wasn't her idea at all, in fact it was an idea whipped up her idiot cousin and Mister March. She didn't see her angst of rabbits irrational at all, if anything it made perfect sense, especially after what happened to Alex. Rabbits were evil creatures and underneath that cute, cuddly act was a pure, raw, predatory instinct. So why they wanted her to get over her perfect sensible fear made no sense to her at all, preferably they should let her be, because someday when the rabbits decide to attack and take over the world her fright might actually save her.

Someone obviously had a wild imagination.

"Last time you went about five minutes without fainting…so let's try to get it to another five, okay?"

Elliot blushed as he wrapped his arms around a trembling Erin, who immediately shut her eyes, deeply trying to forget the fact that the man holding her had rabbit ears on the top of his head. But as she felt her eyelids flutter close the images that ran past her head were only of the rabbit-man whose silent breathing tickled her earlobe. She remembered clearly the first time she met Elliot March.

She fell (well was pushed) down a subway station, which surprising a gaping hole swallowed her up and threw her into this cross-dimensional world. Where life was meaningless, because the residents who existed here, could simply come back to life after dying—all because they had clocks for hearts. This dream-like realm, didn't make much sense and as she trudged through the many territories she somehow found herself stumbling across the Hatter's estate. And lest to say, in the beginning the resident role holders weren't too kind to her.

But after spending some time with them she learned to accept their unusual ways as they learned to accept her many quirks.

Though Elliot of course was the hardest to get along with since her leporiphobia got in the way of their relationship. She didn't mean to be rude by avoiding him, but she would rather like to be conscious than passed out on the floor whenever she saw him. Erin knew she hurt Master March's feelings but it truly wasn't her fault that he happened to be a rabbit, well a hare, but anyways he just terrified her. Which she also was aware that it certainly was not fair to the role holder, since he had been nothing but kind to her and never harmed her in any way.

But still, fear was something that couldn't easily be conquered as Erin was slowly learning.

"You're doing great, Erin. Really you are."

Elliot gently smiled, feeling the warmth of Erin's body, heat his own and could smell the faint scent of sweets and smoke that lingered on her pale skin. It was bittersweet just like the love he felt for her—bitter because her fear of rabbits stopped him from ever confessing his feelings for her and sweet because he was grateful to have met the Foreigner. He could feel his clock tick at every rhythm she made in his arms, making him realize how much he LOVED holding her, and being this close to the Outsider. He felt his playful grin grow wider turning into a goofy smile as he silently thanked the Dealer for the idea of this treatment program, which required him to hold Erin for periods of time until she would be able to finally get over her fear of rabbits.

"P-P-Please…Mister March…if you could r-r-refrain from speaking…I would truly be thankful." Erin stuttered as Elliot felt his ears droop drastically and felt his mauve colored eyes wander up to the now star-filled sky.

Time changes really were unpredictable.

"If that's what you want….though we should probably head inside since it's dar—"

"NO. If we go inside now, Alex will most likely tease me and I rather stay outside in the dark with you than go inside having to face my cousin's taunting."

Erin frowned as a warm blush dusted her cheeks from embarrassment as Elliot felt his clock now rapidly spinning out of control. If Erin kept saying things like that, he wouldn't know what he would do.

"….I know…you told me not speak or anything….but it would be um…kind of awkward if we didn't. Ya know since we're just holding each other in the dark." Elliot blubbered as Erin suddenly cringed at the statement.

"Just…great. Then I guess it can't b-b-be helped….what do you prefer we talk about, Mister March?" Erin managed to choke out, despite the nervousness that was bubbling inside her stomach.

"How about….carrot dishes?"

"Carrots? You want to talk about carrots?"

"No, no, no! This is carrot DISHES, not carrots. It's completely different."

Elliot happily piped as Erin deadpanned at the statement. She knew of the man's love of the orange vegetable and how he was consistently saying that there was a huge difference between carrot dishes and the carrots themselves but if you asked her, she really saw no significant difference. But of course she wasn't going to tell a bunny-eared, gun-slinger, second-in-command of the Hatter Mafia that. She might as well dig her own grave.

"If that's what you w-w-want then I s-s-suppose so."

Thus began what seemed like an hour long conversation about the types of different carrot platters the March Hare found the most delicious and which ones were pretty decent. And no matter how much Erin wanted to run away from the conversation but mostly from the rabbit role-holder—she couldn't because first of all it would be rude to run away from a conversation and second, Elliot had a firm grip around her chest.

"And that's why I find that Carrot Cake is the best carrot dish out there."

The blonde man finished joyfully as Erin started to feel a bit woozy, how long had she been in the role holder's arms anyways?

"I see…..though….a-a-are carrot dishes the only thing you like?" Erin asked trying to get her now clouding mind, to focus on something else rather than the slight dizziness she was feeling.

"The only thing….I like…." Elliot's voice trailed off as his blush spread wider across his cheek bones. He was now incredibly thankful that it was dreadfully dark so Erin couldn't see the bright red color that stained his face.

"Y-Y-Yeah…"

Erin answered back as a long period of silence hovered in the air. Mostly due to the internal struggle the March Hare was feeling inside his chest. Should he take this chance, probably the only opportunity he would get, to tell the Foreigner how he felt? Or should he just remain silent and accept the fact that the gap between them was too great and he should just be content with just being close by. What would his boss do in this situation? Should he go on the offense like Blood always does with Alex and be aggressive too? And as Elliot complemented on what he should, his head started to hurt tremendously and in the end he just let instinct take over.

"Yeah….in fact there is something I like more than carrot dishes."

Elliot paused as he sucked in a nervous breath and swiftly turned Erin around to face him.

"I….like you Erin…to be more specific I love you…even more than all the carrot dishes in the world, even more than carrot cake!" Elliot declared with a burning red face and before he could get a response from the girl he quickly gave her a small peck on the lips to finish the deal.

A second went by. Then two, and finally five before Elliot suddenly realized that something was wrong.

"Uh…Erin…..are yo—YOU GOT TO BE ****ING KIDDING ME!?"

Elliot cussed as he continued to stare in disbelief at the unconscious girl that rested in his arms. Poor thing had fainted long before Elliot started his confession. So his heart-felt (or clock-felt) message fell on deaf ears.

"A-A-And you were doing so well too."

Elliot dishearteningly said as he glanced down at his carrot shaped wrist watch that showed the Foreigner had bravely hung in there for fifteen minutes— A new record.

"….I guess I'll let you off this time…" Elliot laughed as he continued to stare at Erin's peaceful sleeping face before sighing.

"But…just know…I'll wait as long as I need to…if it means I can hold you like this again. Like I said before, Erin Oswald, I love you more than carrot dishes….and that's the end of that."

**~.X.~**

"See I told you Blood, it wasn't a big deal."

Alex childishly pouted as she held up her bandaged hand to a poker-faced Hatter who simply just scoffed and sat down on the velvet couch alongside her.

"I guess you're right, but it was rather entertaining to see your eyes widen at the size of that needle the doctor brought out. I thought men were supposed to be fearless?" Blood teased as a faint blush dusted Alex's cheeks.

Though who wouldn't be scared if a doctor pulled out a needle as thick as a number two pencil from his bag and then proceeded to jam it into your hand. Yeah, it wasn't a fun experience and Alex was pretty sure that that was the last time she was going to be attacked by a bunny. But of course, since the bloody Hatter saw the whole thing, Alex was sure he wouldn't let her forget the whole experience anytime soon. If Alex had learned anything about the Mafia Boss, it was that he LOVED torturing the hell out of her.

"I am fearless! And just so you know I took on that dangerous creature that attacked me like a boss!"

"Oh, right. What was the so-called devious creature again? A rabbit, correct?"

"That's right! The biggest, meanest rabbit that ever lived!"

Alex declared as she jumped up to her feet trying to scavenged some of her shattered dignity she had left.

"Is that so? But it looked awfully small from where I was standing, Alexandria—MPFH!"

Blood's glass colored eyes grew in shock as Alex jumped on top of him and proceeded to cover his mouth.

"D-D-Don't call me that."

Alex embarrassingly stuttered as the two remained in that awkward position for a good while, until Blood decided he had enough of the Foreigner crushing his insides. With a single shove, the mafioso gained the upper hand as he then climbed on top of Alex and pinned her arms to her side. Blood watched as Alex squirmed beneath him, trying to break free from his grasp, which in certain situations she could have but because of her recent injury it turned out to be a bigger problem than she expected it to be.

"Pray, tell, why shouldn't I call someone by their name?"

Blood continued to taunt his new prey as Alex glared at the damn Hatter. If he wasn't so heavy she would have easily flipped him, but then again her hand was kind of hurting her, sending a sharp pain that crawled up her arm and stopped just below her elbow.

That rabbit was very vicious after all.

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because I don't like it when you call me that!"

Alex huffed as she slide her leg up and was about to knee him in the family goods, when Blood felt the sudden change and pinned her leg down using his own. Now with Alex secure, the Mad Hatter decided to continue with his little investigation. It was interesting after all.

"And why not?" Blood seductively purred into her ear before drawing back as Alex suddenly turned a bright red. She wasn't use to this type of treatment, especially from a male.

"B-B-Because….it…just…feels funny."

Alex answered, saying the first thing that popped into her mind. It was a bad habit of hers and she suddenly wished she had never said it, because now the Mad Hatter was looking at her strangely. But it was the truth, when Blood had found out her real name was Alexandria (due to a certain cousin accidentally spilling the beans) he would constantly tease her, calling her by her girl name just so he could get under her skin. And the whole thing just made her feel weird, each time that word left his lips, it made her heart race faster and made her stomach feel—uneasy.

Just like now.

But unfortunately Blood Dupre was not satisfied with that answer.

"Funny? It feels funny?" the mafioso asked though it looked as if he was questioning the word rather than the person.

"Y-Y-Yeah…uncomfortable really…."

"Hm, I see…tell me…Alexandria…do I make you _FEEL_ uncomfortable?"

Blood said straining the words feel as he inched closer to Alex's now tomato-red face. He was going to enjoy every second of this while he could.

"Of course…y-y-you always make uncomfortable." Alex bluntly stated catching Blood off guard—for just a moment before he smirked down at his Foreigner. "Is that so? Tell me, how do I make you feel so uncomfortable?" He cooed as he nuzzled his face into the side of Alex's neck causing her face to burn ten times brighter than before.

"W-W-Well first of all… I can never tell what your t-t-thinking and that bothers me greatly!" Alex said, trying to ignore the fact that the Mad Hatter was in her personal bubble, and it only made her feel more anxious. " But that's not the thing that ticks me off the most!"

"Oh? It isn't? Then what about me ticks you off the most?" Blood suddenly leaned back, releasing Alex from his grip so she could sit upright again, but he remained close enough, so if she ever happened to plan to escape he could easily put her in submission again.

"Well since you asked…it's like a race…"

"A race?"

"Yeah! And I'm running as fast as I can to get to the finish line, and you just happen to jog ahead of me. Which I wouldn't mind at all, except no matter how fast I run—you're still ahead! But the worst part of it is that halfway through the race you turn around and wave at me…YOU FRICKEN WAVE AT ME! Like it's no big deal that I'm huffing and puffing to try to beat you! And that is why Blood Dupre...your my biggest rival!"

Alex shouted as Blood was taken aback by the Outsider's words. Because in reality that was how he felt, he was chasing after a Foreigner who seemed like her love couldn't be caught and every time he tried to show her or tell her how he felt she would somehow slip away. But what really made the Hatter angry was that she considered him a rival and he was not about to let that happen.

"Rival? Heh, you think of me as a rival? Ha! That's the most absurd thing I've heard you say since you've arrived in Wonderland." Blood mocked as Alex's lips twitched into a frown. But before Alex could say a word , Blood roughly grabbed her jaw and continued his ridicule.

"To be a person's rival, means that each player is on equal terms, but _**Miss**__ Alexandria_, that is not the case here. Since obviously I will **ALWAYS** beat you no matter what the outcome. So this little idea you have, crush it, because we are NOT rivals and never will be. In fact this little notion sounds more like your obsessed with me."

Blood grinned as he sharply threw a now flustered Alex back and watched as the poor girl struggled to regain her composure. But of course that failed.

"OBSESSED WITH YOU!? ME!? OBSESSED WITH YOU! HA!" Alex seethed as she rose to get off the couch, because she feared if she stayed any longer she would punch the arrogant man in the face and send him straight to the hospital. She certainly had the ability to and she wasn't completely ruling out the idea.

"Surely the only one mad here is, YOU!"

Alex growled but before she could take another step the Mad Hatter violently pulled her onto his laps and before she could utter a cry, the man forcefully planted his lips onto hers. The whole scandalous affair lasted for only a minute (though it felt like eternity for Alex) before both parties desperately needed air and with an audible pop, the lip-locking ceased.

"Heh, well Alex, it seems like you're a girl after all." Blood nonchalantly stated with a smug grin plastered on his face as he proudly looked at his handiwork. Which of course was an even more distraught Alex with slightly swollen lips.

"Y-Y-You…" Alex shakily stuttered as she touched her slightly tender mouth as she stared at the mafia boss, clear teal eyes meeting cocky, proud sea-foam ones.

"Yes, I guess this is the part where you confess your undying love to m—"

**BAM!**

"You b******! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU!? I'M A GUY!"

Alex shouted as she pulled her fist away from a now bleeding Mafia boss, as she resorted back to what she was familiar with and what she knew—which was pretending to be a man.

Unfortunately.

"BLOOD DUPRE! YOU ARE INSUFFERABLE! AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER WORDS I CAN'T THINK OF RIGHT NOW! YOU DELUSIONAL PSYCHO!"

Alex shouted as she marched out of the room and slammed the doors behind her, leaving the Mad Hatter alone in his study, with a satisfied smirk left on his face.

"Heh, it was worth it…..to see you feel the same too. But, of course I won't let you get away that easily…Alexandria. Because I am the one, it seems, to be obsessed with you."

**~.X.~**

"Alex are you okay? You're leaving trail marks on the floor."

Erin pointed out as her reading glasses slid down her nose and she closed the book she had in her hands. The two cousins were in Blood's small library, warned by the estate Gate Keepers, two young boys named Dee and Dum, to stay out of the March Hare and Mad Hatter's way, since both men were unreasonably irritated today. Though it appeared that they weren't the only ones troubled since, Erin had spent the last half hour watching her younger cousin pace around in small circles muttering to herself. Which hadn't bothered Erin, until she noticed that thick black scruff marks were being made by Alex's constant movement around the room. And Blood would probably add that to their ever-increasing debt.

"Yup! Just fricken peachy!" Alex scowled as she jumped to a stop and furiously ran her fingers through her short locks. Erin sighed before deciding she better intervene in the situation.

"Come tell, your cousin Erin, what the bloody problem is." Erin patted the small spot beside her as Alex rushed to the seat and instantly cuddled against her older cousin like a small child would and began to vent her problems.

"Erin! That Blood Dupre…he…he's a sadistic b******! A plague to humanity! I swear! I could kill him! Really I could!" Alex dramatically waved her hands in the air as Erin nodded, going along with her cousin's rampage. " And I would if I wasn't against killing! Gah! I should have punched him harder and sent him flying out the window!~~" Alex wailed as she kicked up her legs in the air as Erin kept agreeing with her cousin until Alex's words suddenly hit her.

"Wait a minute…you punched Blood?"

"Yeah…right on the face too! I think he was even bleeding." Alex smiled at the thought as Erin paled drastically.

"Alex…you bloody idiot….don't you realized what you've done…" Erin ominously said as Alex curiously looked up at the distressed brunette.

"Well yeah I—"

"YOU PUNCHED A MAFIA BOSS IN THE FACE! AND NOT JUST ANY MAFIA BOSS! YOU PUNCHED THE ONE WHO LIKES TO GET REVENGE AND RAISE OUR DEBT TO OUTRAGEOUS PRICES!" Erin shook Alex forcefully, rattling her small brain inside her skull as the news finally hit Alex in the gut.

"OH SWEET CREAM CHEESE DANISH! I PUNCHED BLOOD IN THE FACE! GAHH! I'M DEAD! ERIN SAVE ME!" Alex childishly wept as she held onto her cousin for support but sadly that did little to calm the other's nerves.

"I-I-I'm sorry Alex, but I can't save someone who is marked for death."

"Urk! Y-Y-You don't have to s-s-say it like that…"

Alex irked as she grabbed her chest before collapsing on the floor in distress. If there was a God, she really needed him to save her right now. She can only imagine the horrible death Blood had in store for her, if anything she prayed that it would be a swift, clean kill.

"Sorry but it's the truth." Erin said as she tossed a couple of pillows onto the floor before joining her cousin in staring at the acoustic finishing on the ceiling.

"Just promise me you'll send my body back home to my mother. I would like to be buried in London, specifically underneath a bakery so when I'm a ghost I can eat all the cake I want."

Alex seriously said as Erin chuckled, even though she knew her young cousin was being truthful about wanting to be buried underneath a bakery, she found the whole idea rather funny.

"Well, you can't die just yet….I still need you, you know."

Erin teasingly poked Alex's forehead causing the smaller girl to frown.

"Whatever, I'm doomed anyways. I'm such an unlucky kid." Alex pouted as Erin laughed again.

"Yes, you are but I need somebody unlucky if I'm going to survive Wonderland. Besides all your bad luck gives me good luck." Erin smiled as Alex pouted, a bit offended that her cousin was only using her to get good luck.

There was a moment of still silence before Alex decided to speak up.

"But…even if I'm gone you'll have Elliot."

"What do you mean?" Erin quickly questioned as her bright green eyes narrowed at her now grinning cousin.

"Oh, don't deny it Erin.~ I see the way you look at each other.~"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Alex."

"Poppycock! You know exactly what I'm talking about.~" Alex's mischievous smile grew wider as she sat up and faced her clueless cousin before continuing. "You want to hold him~ You want to squeeze him~ You want to kiss him~" Alex chanted as Erin popped up from her spot, with ears burning red and now glaring at her annoying cousin.

"Lies! Where did you get that idea from!? And I do not see Mister March that way!" Erin fought back as Alex started to laugh and tease her flustered cousin even more.

"It's quiet obvious, my dear Erin! Anyone could see that you and Elliot are Romeo and Juliet destined to—"

"Die? Because that's what happens in the end, Alex, they DIE. But of course you wouldn't know that because you've never opened a boo—"

**SMACK!**

Erin fell backwards as her nose filled with feathers from the pillow Alex slammed into her face.

What the hell?

"I have too read a book! Many in fact! It's not my fault I can't remember every one of them like a nerd like you can.~" Alex stuck out her tongue as Erin regained her composure and slowly put her glasses away before picking up a nearby cushion by her feet.

"Oh…that's right… I forgot…you have the memory of a goldfish!"

**SMACK!**

Erin swung her pillow, colliding the plush thing right into her cousin's unsuspecting face. And just like that a pillow fight erupted between the two. Vases, books, tables and chairs, nothing was safe from the two's whirlwind of destruction as they ran down the huge hallways, screaming battle cries and laughing as they waved their weapons around. Forgetting for a moment that Alex had punched a deadly mafia boss in the face and that Erin had a serious fear of rabbits.

No, in their own little world, they were safe, together , and happy—and that's all that truly mattered.

"Erin…"

"Yeah, Alex?"

The now young adult, who had grown so much from her fifteen year old self answered as she looked at her feather-covered cousin who laid besides her in the small pile of goose down.

"We'll….always be together….no matter what right?" Alex whispered loud enough so only Erin could hear as her favorite cousin thought for a moment before speaking.

"Eventually…we'll have to go our own ways—"

Erin paused as Alex felt a bit sadden by her words.

"But…no matter what the situation, or what predicament we may get into. Even if it's something as ridiculous as falling into a cross-dimensional world."

Erin and Alex briefly chuckled at that before Erin seriously continued.

"We'll always be family, cousins, and nobody, not even a man with bunny-ears or a man with a ridiculously large hat can change that."

**~.X.~**

"_In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die: _

_Ever drifting down the stream- Lingering in the golden gleam- Life, what is it but a dream?"_

**~.X.~**

* * *

**Okay so I own Alexandria Liddell (otherwise known as Alexander Liddell)... I do not own HnKnA or it's characters Quinrose does..I also do not own Erin Oswald...Sleeping Moon does. And here ya go buddy! The final chapter of this two-part one shot! I hoped you enjoyed it! :D Also hope you readers enjoyed it too! So review, fave, follow...you know the drill...i'm going to go make me a sandwich now. Also the quote is by Lewis Carroll. **


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